it's been four years since colin kaepernick became a national hero to some, vilified by others, for protesting against police brutality, dividing the nfl and the country. >> people are dying in vain because this country isn't holding their end of the bargain up. >> kneeling during the national anthem, told to stop protesting and play. now with the country erupting, calls for racial justice after the death of george floyd. >> this is the very thing that colin knelt for, four years ago. >> the nfl players who had his back, fighting for change in the nfl and throughout the country. >> this special edition of "nightline" "kneeling for change", starts right now.

>> we have cops that are murdering people. and that's issue that needs to be addressed. >> to me, he was an athlete who really understood what was going on in our country. >> just a few years ago, colin kaepernick was arguably a top ten quarterback in the nfl. >> it looked like he was going to be one of the best in the game. >> on the biggest stage in sports, with millions of eyes watching, that iconic image, a lone player, protesting during the national anthem. >> the first thing i thought was this is going to be a big deal. >> he took a knee for something bigger than himself. >> i'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. >> black lives matter! >> as the country faces a moment of reckoning, a history of racial injustice. sparking renewed calls for real progress.

>> no peace! >> a 2020 reality, seed in the 2016 outcry. >> that's a total disrespect for everything we stand for. >> a message rippling around the world to this day. >> don't apologize, give colin kaepernick a job back. >> tonight, inside the saga that defined a star's career. >> this stand wasn't for me. >> and turned a quarterback into the conscience of a generation. >> no justice! >> no peace! >> colin kaepernick was born in milwaukee to a white mother and black father. his mother was only 19 at the time. she put him up for adoption. he was adopted by a white couple. they ended up moving to california. and around that time he realized he looked different from other people.

but the thing with colin kaepernick in california was, in sports, in playing sports, he really found himself. >> he's a terrific athlete. in high school, he wanted to play football. and in nevada, reno offers a scholarship. >> touchdown wolf pack! >> we knew he was going to be a coveted draft pick, and he was. drafted in the second round bit san francisco 49ers, and all of a sudden the 2012 season, kaepernick is taking the 49ers all the way to the super bowl. >> kaepernick's in for the touchdown! wow, did he get there in a hurry. >> he's clearly one of the future stars of the league, but he's still a black man in america and he's keenly aware of the fact that despite all his successes, he's looked at differently in this country. and then he sees the death of alton sterling, eric garner, freddie gray. >> it was that moment that the light bulb went off for him and he wanted to make a statement

about what was going on the world. and he decided he would sit during the national anthem as a moment of protest. >> it was because of his concern about how black men were being treated. and then the next week the kneeling. >> i can't look in the mirror and see other people dying on the street that should have the same opportunities that i've had and say, you know what? i can live with myself, because i can't if i just watch. >> all of a sudden, it became a point of controversy. >> i don't think it helps the cause any. >> you have to stand up there with your team and understand this game and what's going on around the country is bigger than just you. >> are you concerned that it can be seen as a blanket indictment against law enforcement in general? >> what are you getting at? >> do you think that, it seems sort of an indictment against police? >> there is police brutality. >> yes. >> people of color have been targeted by police.

>> his message was hijacked, and it became about everything except what he was protesting. >> and he's receiving heavy boos here. >> colin made it very clear from the beginning that his protest was not about the military. it was not about the flag. it was not about the anthem. it was not about anything except racial inequality and police brutality against people of color. >> i think a lot of guys didn't understand. then there were other guys that were totally on board. >> one person who decidedly was not on board was republican presidential nominee donald trump. he said this on a radio show. >> i think it's a terrible thing. maybe he should find a country that will work better for him. let him try. it won't happen. >> it seemed like everything was adding fuel to the fire of the protest. president obama was asked about the kneeling during the g-20 summit. >> he's exercising his constitutional right to make a statement. i think there's a long history

of sports figures doing so. >> you think about jesse owens, back when he was running in the olympics, protesting adolf hitler and what was happening in germany. then you move on to the '60s, an explosive time. you talk about bill russell, standing up for the rights of black people, mohammad ali refusing to go to the vietnam war, and then there was john carlos and tommy smith. that photo seen around the world. >> it's been 52 years since i moved to that podium and made a statement that banned me from track and field, internationally, for the rest of my life. >> let me put into context for you the situation around john carlos and tommy smith. we're talking the '60s. massive unrest here in america over civil rights. >> martin luther king is killed. malcolm x is killed. this was a moment where the whole world was watching the

olympics, almost as a diversion to the crises that were going on in america and tommy smith and john carlos, raising their fists on that podium rocked the world. >> they stood for something they believed in, knowing that there would be blow back across this country. >> the job i had before i left, i lost, so i sacrificed what i had to make known to those who were watching the need to provide a better system to live in. >> 50 years later, colin kaepernick in many ways made that same sacrifice. >> so after the 2016 season, colin had an option year on his contract. and the 49ers had made the decision that they were going to move in another direction at the quarterback position. so colin asked for his release and did not find another taker. >> do you think colin kaepernick was black listed by the nfl? >> no question. >> without a doubt. >> owners are concerned about one thing.

and that's the bottom line. >> as a black athlete, you have a very limited voice. your voice is to sell products. >> and when you have angry fans and skittish sponsors and the ratings have dropped, they're going to take note of that. >> you have a league that's 70% black and over the years many black players have said we want to be outspoken. on different issues, concerning what's happening in our society. but the nfl has said we're not about that, and then comes colin kaepernick, and just with one simple gesture, he turns it all on its head. >> you forget that the game is just a small part of our life, and the keyword is "game." but the reality is we're all human beings at the end of the day. >> colin kaepernick's protests were focussed on police brutality and racial injustice. how much fame you have or money you make doesn't shield you from that, and that was the case with michael bennett in 2017.

>> arrest taking place down on the ground. >> the first thing they think about african-americans most of the time is them being criminals or thugs. >> police respond to an active shooting call and go to the casino where bennett is. they mistakenly think he's somehow involved. they end up tackling him, pinning him to the ground and handcuffing him. >> you're on the ground. what's going through your mind? >> if i make one wrong move, i'll never see my kids again, i'll never see my wife again. you start to question your livelihood, your humanity. you start to question if you're even going to exist anymore. >> some of the voices had died down around the protest movement against police brutality. and this video sort of put the discussion back on the table. it brought back this idea that kaepernick was talking about. see what happens to black people in america every single day? >> colin stopped talking

publicly once he was no longer on a roster. and so these players were conflicted about what do we do? so you had some who continued on with kneeling. not only in support of colin, but in support of human rights. >> i got a daughter. she going to have to live in this world. >> as a team we came together and felt like it was the right thing. >> did you ever worry that by taking that stand that you might get cut? >> i wasn't really scared of losing my job, because at the end of the day, i was able to look my family in the eye and tell them that i stood for my principles. >> the moment that an ember, a tiny little smoking ember is literally ignited into a forest fire is the day that donald trump goes to alabama. >> wouldn't you love to see one of these nfl owners, when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that [ bleep ] off the field right now? out. he's fired. >> to tell somebody to put a muzzle on us and shut us up because to his mind we're

animals, right? >> guys were torn up. grown men were crying, because he's our president. he represents all of us. and for him to say and call one of us an s.o.b., and really, he's talking to all of us when he said that, and that's when you saw the mass kneeling, the mass protest. >> when we took the field, we were on a knee, and guys were praying. guys were locked in, holding arms, and i think we just stuck together. and that was a part from me that was very uplifting. >> at that point, the kneeling controversy was the number one story in the country, because the president had made it that. >> the nfl decided to pass a ruling that basically banned kneeling. it said you can't kneel. and if you want to protest, you can stay in the locker room. >> we want people to be respectful to the national anthem. >> they never enforced it, which was interesting, because what was the point of doing it then? was it simply to try and placate the president? >> we hadn't heard colin

kaepernick's name for a while. >> no justice! no peace! >> until now, the killing of george floyd. up next, thousands across the country kneel in the middle of american streets. >> i will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag. >> you are part of the problem. >> how the death of george floyd sparked new debate inside the nfl and may change the game forever. ever since darrell's family started using gain flings, their laundry smells more amazing than ever. ah, honey! isn't that the dog's towel? hey, me towel su towel. there's more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze odor remover in every fling. gain. seriously good scent. how do you gaveeno® happy 24/7? with prebiotic oat.

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we're going to need some help with the rest. you've worked so hard to achieve so much. perhaps it's time to partner with someone who knows you and your business well enough to understand what your wealth is really for. it has been four years since colin kaepernick first took a knee in silent and peaceful protest of police brutality. but the reason we're talking about it now is entirely different than the reason that we were first talking about it back in 2016. it was the knee on the neck juxtaposed with the quarterback with his knee on the ground during the national anthem, and it all made sense. we had come full circle. colin kaepernick was right. >> when i see a video like george floyd, i see myself laying on the concrete. when i see george floyd, i see my brother. i see my father.

i see my friends. >> you grieve because you have a 2-year-old son that you know someday, if our country stays the same, you wonder will he have the knowledge, will you explain well enough that he knows what to do in different situations because of the color of his skin. >> get your knee off his neck, apologize to kaepernick. >> when the nfl initially put out a tepid statement following the death of george floyd nobody was satisfied with it. it was such a controversy that players created a video. >> what if i was george floyd? >> if i was george floyd. >> this is what we, the players. >> would like to hear you state. >> we, the national football league condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people. >> and you know what? 24 hours later, the commissioner got on camera and echoed exactly what those players wanted to hear. >> we, the national football

league, admit we were wrong for not listening to players earlier. we, the national football league believe black lives matter. without black players, there would be no national football league. >> yeah, you were wrong, but you should somewhere be acknowledging that black lives matter. what are you going to do about it? >> there's three black head coaches right now, no black owners. minorities aren't represented until you get to the locker room. >> what was your reaction to his statement? >> he didn't say colin kaepernick. i feel like you can't make that statement without saying we didn't listen to colin kaepernick when he was trying to tell us. >> there are people in the nfl who are still objecting to what they think colin kaepernick believes. drew brees gave an interview to yahoo news where he was asked if he that there would be kneeling in the nfl because of what happened to george floyd. >> i will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the united states of america or our country. >> drew brees, if you don't

understand how hurtful, how insensitive your comments are, you are part of the problem. because when we step off this field and i take the helmet off, i'm a black man walking around america. even though we're teammates, i can't let this slide. >> so the backlash was swift. and drew brees immediately tried to contact people on his team. he spoke to malcolm jenkins, and then within 24 hours, he had a completely different message. >> i just want you to see my eyes, how sorry i am. and i will do better, and i will be part of the solution. >> i think ultimately what matters is what drew brees does in the community and what he does going forward. >> from protesters to players, people are saying that words aren't enough anymore. so the nfl is seemingly trying to put its money where its mouth is, pledging 250 million over the next ten years to combat

systemic racism. >> listen to the players in this league who are from these communities, i would love to see them take the initiative of listening and finding out how to get involved, but i would say i'm not too confident in that happening. >> a source tells abc news that the league is willing to work with colin kaepernick on social justice initiatives. >> nfl.com is reporting that a team might be interested in having colin kaepernick as a quarterback again. so he might actually it find his way back to the nfl. >> if we have football in the fall, which it looks like we will, we will have massive protests, protests in professional sports, college sports, high school sports. >> black lives matter! black lives matter! >> his legacy has been cemented. >> not everybody was ready for colin kaepernick's protest four years ago. do you think they're ready now? >> i don't think anyone has a choice. when you turn on the news in our country, you don't have a choice but to be ready. people are fed up. and they don't care if anyone's ready anymore. >> black lives matter! black lives matter! >> the country has changed. you know, we're not sitting here

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at the height of our country's civil rights protest, bob dylan's songs "the times, they are achangin'" was popular. and became an anthem. now some are wondering if the times might be changing again. that's "nightline," thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ba, da, ba, ba, da, ba, ♪ ♪ jimmy kimmel live this is ridiculous. >> jimmy: hello, i'm jimmy. i'm the host of this house. thank you for braving the curfew to be here. although we didn't have a curfew in l.a. tonight for the first time this week. we did have an earthquake.

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